Spencer Tracy is a legendary American actor who was nominated for an Oscar nine times and received this award twice, in 1937 and 1938. Tracy is considered one of the main stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Early biography and first Broadway appearances
Spencer Tracy was born in 1900 in the American city of Milwaukee to Caroline and John Edward Tracy, a truck seller.
When Tracy was eighteen, he joined the United States Navy. He was sent to a training center in North Chicago, where Tracy received the rank of a second class sailor. However, in practice, he never went to sea. The future actor was demobilized in February 1919.
Tracy began performing in Broadway productions in 1923. Moreover, his first appearances on the stage did not have much success.
In the fall of 1926, the aspiring actor was offered a role in the new play by George Michael Cohan "Yellow". At that moment, Tracy firmly decided that if this production fails, he will quit the theater and look for another job. But the play aroused a certain interest, it was shown as many as 135 times.
Moreover, George Michael Cohan himself appreciated Tracy's talent and offered him a role in another play of his - "The Baby Cyclone". This play debuted on Broadway in September 1927 and became a hit.
Film career
In 1930, director John Ford Tracy began collaborating with film director John Ford and starred in his comedy Up the River. Here he played a bandit named St. Louis. After that, the directors began to constantly invite the artist to the roles of ordinary guys, who are forced by circumstances to go along a crooked path. In particular, in the thirties, he starred in such films as "Light Millions", "Hooliganism", "Face in the Sky" and "Dregs of Society".
Tracy's career took on a whole new level after he played in Fritz Lang's film Fury (1936). His hero - mechanic Joe Wilson, by the will of circumstances, became a victim of a lynching trial and narrowly escaped death. After that, he vowed to take revenge on his offenders …
In 1937, Tracy got the role of the fisherman Manuel in the adventure film "Brave Captains", based on the work of Rudyard Kipling. He mimicked the foreign accent well, and overall played his character very convincingly. This role brought Tracy an Oscar.
In 1938, Tracy appeared as a priest working in a school of young criminals in the film "City of Boys". And this role also brought him the main award of the American Film Academy. Subsequently, he was nominated for an Oscar seven more times, but he never managed to get a third statuette in his collection.
In the early forties, Tracy starred in several films about the war. One of them - the film "A Guy Named Joe" (1943) is one of the highest-grossing in the actor's filmography (grossing more than $ 5 million).
Of particular note is the film "The Seventh Cross" (1944), which tells about the escape from a Nazi concentration camp. In addition, in the same 1944, he starred in a military drama about American pilots "Thirty Seconds Above Tokyo".
In 1960, the actor met the great director Stanley Kramer and starred in his film Reap the Storm. Here he played a lawyer who, in the twenties, undertook to defend a teacher accused of teaching students the Darwin theory prohibited in the state.
In 1961, Tracy took part in another Kramer film, The Nuremberg Trials. Here he played the role of an American judge, heading a judicial tribunal in one of the "small Nuremberg trials." Tracy's partners on the set were Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell and Judy Garland.
He then starred in two more Kramer films - This Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Crazy World (1963) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967), and these were the last roles in his career.
Personal life
In the early twenties, Tracy met actress Louise Treadwell. The couple was engaged in May 1923, and on September 10 of the same year they got married between the morning and evening performances.
Their son John Ten Brooke Tracy appeared in June 1924. When John was about ten months old, it was discovered that the boy was deaf from birth. And that upset Tracy a lot.
In July 1932, the couple had a second child.
In 1933, Spencer Tracy distanced himself from his family and began to live separately. From September 1933 to June 1934, he had an affair with actress Loretta Young. Moreover, the actor did not even hide this connection.
Then Spencer reconciled with Louise, and they never officially divorced. At the same time, Tracy continued to have extramarital affairs with Hollywood stars. For example, in 1937 he met with Joan Crawford, and in 1941 with Ingrid Bergman.
In 1942, on the set of the film "Woman of the Year", Tracy met Katharine Hepburn (despite the same surname, she is not a relative of the equally famous Audrey Hepburn). And this relationship was not just another short affair, the love between them persisted until the last days of the actor's life. Although it must be admitted that the lovers never advertised their connection.
Spencer and Catherine complemented each other well in the frame and have acted together more than once. For example, their play can be seen in such films as "Without Love" (1945) "Sea of Grass" (1947) "Adam's Rib" (1949), "Pat and Mike" (1952).
In the early eighties, when Louise and Spencer were no longer in the world, Katharine Hepburn first allowed herself to openly talk about her relationship with the actor. In addition, in 1986 she took part in the creation of the documentary film "The Legacy of Spencer Tracy: A Tribute from Katharine Hepburn."
Health problems and death of the actor
When Tracy was over sixty, his health began to deteriorate sharply. On July 21, 1963, he was hospitalized after a bout of suffocation. Doctors have established that the actor suffers from pulmonary edema and has high blood pressure.
From that moment on, Tracy needed constant care. And this care was provided to him alternately by Spencer's wife Louise, as well as Katharine Hepburn.
In January 1965, the actor was diagnosed with hypertensive heart disease and diabetes mellitus. But even serious health problems did not prevent him from acting in another film.
The great film actor died on June 10, 1967 in his Beverly Hills apartment from a heart attack.
